ISSA VOWS NEW INFO ON BENGHAZI ATTACK

Congressman to lead hearing on deaths of ambassador and three men with local ties

Congressman Darrell Issa’s investigation into last year’s deaths of an American ambassador and three men with San Diego ties during an attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, is poised to retake center stage in Washington.

Issa, R-Vista, is promising groundbreaking details about what led to the Sept. 11, 2012, slayings of Ambassador Chris Stevens, former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty of Encinitas and Tyrone Woods of Imperial Beach, and information management specialist Sean Smith, who grew up in San Diego.

“The American people still don’t have the full truth about what happened, both before and after the murders of four brave Americans,” said Issa, who plans to lead the May hearing as chairman of the House Oversight Committee. “Our hearing will examine new facts about what happened and significant problems with the administration’s own view of Benghazi failures.”

The hearing is expected to center on information from unnamed whistle-blowers who contacted his committee. Their information, he said, presents evidence that Obama administration officials have attempted to suppress.

“While President (Barack) Obama and his administration may be inclined to give free passes to senior officials who bungled their responsibilities, this committee will expose what they did and hold them accountable to the public,” Issa said.

Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have defended the administration’s handling of Benghazi but acknowledged that security at the compound could have been better.

Patricia Smith of San Diego, the mother of Sean Smith, said Friday that she is anxious for the hearing.

“My son is dead, and I want to know why my son and three other people were sacrificed,” she said. “I want to know who is responsible.”

In October, Issa conducted a hearing that disclosed how requests for additional security at the site had gone unheeded. The hearing also made it clear that the compound came under organized attack and not a spontaneous assault precipitated by a protest, as administration officials first indicated.

A date for the upcoming hearing has not been announced, but the session is expected to take place next month. It follows on the heels of a report issued Tuesday by Issa and chairmen of four other House committees investigating Benghazi that claim a series of failures before, during and after the attack.

A White House spokeswoman called the report a rehash. Democrats on the investigating committees protested that they were excluded, and they labeled the report as a partisan document.

Issa said the report shows that Clinton expressly denied more security for the compound. He bases his assertion on an April 2012 cable acknowledging the request for additional security but stating that the reverse — a drawdown of protective personnel — would go forward.

After the report came out, Issa went on the TV show “Fox and Friends” and said it shows that Clinton’s congressional testimony in January — when she stated that she had never seen such a cable — “was just wrong.”

“She said she did not participate in this and yet only a few months before the attack, she outright denied security in her signature in a cable,” he said on the show.

His remarks prompted recriminations from several quarters, including former State Department officials who said such cables always carry the secretary’s signature.

They emphasized that only the most sensitive are ever seen by the secretary.

On Friday, The Washington Post labeled the seven-term lawmaker’s statement on Fox a “whopper.” But Issa spokesman Frederick Hill said the cable is significant because it shows requests for more security were denied through official channels.

“The cable itself states ‘signature’ next to Clinton’s name and some of the names of those who participated in the process of clearing and approving the cable,” Hill said.

Those names were blacked out by the State Department in copies given to Congress.

“On multiple occasions, congressional investigators objected to these redactions and requested unredacted documents, including this cable,” Hill said. “State Department has still not complied with these requests.”

On another front, an effort by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, to have the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to Doherty and Woods is gaining momentum, according to Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper.

The medal is the highest honor the country can bestow on a civilian.

Hunter introduced the award legislation in March, saying the men deserve it for their efforts to save Stevens and other U.S. personnel.

Woods’ father, Charles Woods, said he isn’t paying much attention to the congressional investigations but hopes Congress will approve the medal sought for his son and Doherty.